How to achieve a truly personalised approach through the effective use of data

Two thirds of consumers across every age group in the
UK and Germany now like to receive individualised communications and more than
half now claim to be happy to share personal information with brands.

These findings, taken from a recent joint study we carried
out with big data software provider Celebrus Technologies, not only highlight a
big shift in customer attitudes towards data, but also a huge opportunity for
brands. However, whilst we all know that data has the power to dramatically
transform a business’ understanding of a customer and the way they interact
with a brand, their ability to meet the changing needs of the consumer is
becoming increasingly difficult.

In
this month’s 'Ask the Experts' article Teradata experts outline what a truly
personalised customer approach is and how brands can effectively use to their
data to engage with their customers on an individual level.

With customers now interacting with brands across
multiple channels at once, and each interaction creating new data related to
that experience, customer facing organisations have a huge amount of data at
their fingertips. Whilst this data is unquestionably incredibly valuable, the
fact it is continually being generated at a rapid rate means there is now a
greater need for the brand, media owner, media agency and advertising agency to
work together in a far more cohesive manner, to share insights and achieve a
broader and richer view of the customer.

Data may power that agenda, but unless you utilise the
insight it provides you with and channel it through effective personalisation,
you’re not reaching your potential and more importantly, you are likely to be
handing a valued customer to a competitor.

Here are some top tips for achieving true
personalisation:

The importance of personalisation and the rise of individualisation

If you engage with customers on a personal level, they
will feel valued and that you have listened to their needs. This approach is
critical to building brand loyalty and should be a staple of any CRM campaign.
However, the days of simply personalising emails to specific preferences or
online browsing behaviour are a thing of the past. That is still fundamentally
important, but brands now need to go much further. As the recent Data-Driven
Marketing Survey conducted by Teradata highlighted, 90% of marketers believe
individualised marketing is the future. Adopting an individualised approach
enables brands to build far more meaningful relationships with their customers,
based on real data.

One-to-one Interactions

One-to-one interactions that fulfil a specific need or
evoke a particular emotion are invaluable in a market that is often saturated
with meaningless messages. However, it’s not just untargeted content that’s a
problem, it’s also about fragmented content. You may have the best email
campaign around, rooted in insight, but if it’s not created in line with your
CPC advertising or your other channel activity and messaging, your customer is
going to be left confused, isolated and disengaged with your brand. That’s far
from the ideal personalised experience they deserve.

Don’t focus on one device

Customers are no longer channel loyal; they move
around the web in very different ways and expect brands to recognise this.
Understanding that, then utilising it to your advantage, is paramount.

Don’t underestimate the importance of planning

Getting these brand strategies right is particularly
important for brands that experience key milestones or spikes in activity
across the year. Planning ahead to ensure these are maximised, especially
during peak periods - where they need to deliver the right offers, to the right
customers, at the right time - is essential to success. If you carefully
pinpoint these areas ahead of time, collate and analyse the data you need to
power the campaign and identify which customers may be the most perceptive or
“in the moment” you can establish a sharper laser focus and scale up activity
according to demand.

Have a clear view

The explosion of Black Friday across the retail sector
last year brought fresh opportunities to build deeper relationships with
customers, but in reality it highlighted gaps in many organisations’ marketing
strategies, as they failed to connect their customer data. Having a clear view
of every data set related to a customer, both on- and offline, is key. Breaking
down organisational silos is critical if the brand is going to power a
successful and personalised campaign. This will allow a complete view of all
data sets across all partners that are interacting with the customer at every
point in the purchase journey.

Data Management and Organisation

Achieving a consistent message, which is not
fragmented or contradicted by other activity is only possible if brands
understand the real-time behaviours of their customers and work in collaboration
with other departments and partners to achieve a far richer and accurate view.

Break down silos

Operating in silos can be crippling for any
organisation and restrict the flow of information throughout the business.
Looking ahead to this year’s Black Friday, the brands that performed poorly
last year should now be working to ensure that departments are working together
and have broken down silos and have control over their customer data. This will
enable them to maximise it when it matters and deliver targeted messages.

The role of technology

Investing in implementing technology systems, which
centralise and connect all available data together, should be a priority. Data
needs to be able to flow freely between departments, so that the business has a
360 degree view of the customer at any given point and can use this insight to
target them in real-time. It’s these systems that will bring transparency and
ensure the messages going out to customers are united, while clearly
recognising their individual journey and individual needs.

In conclusion, for any business operating in today’s
market, the quest to understand more about your customer is an on-going one,
not to be entered into without the correct support systems in place. The larger
the organisation, the greater the number of affiliates and partners likely to
be involved in delivering the customer experience. Each interaction offers a
new opportunity to build a deeper relationship, but all this data is redundant
if the brand fails to take action to implement the systems that will bring each
department together seamlessly. The personalised approach is a priory for
customers, so it should be paramount for brands. The critical data is there for
the taking – it’s now up to the brands to ensure each insight is being shared
and used to drive a rich experience and relationship.

This
article is a summary of Teradata’s newsletter “Inside Digital Marketing”. If
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